The following chart was sent to me by a trader who just completed his very first futures trade.
It shows the MNQ (Micro E-mini NASDAQ) on a 3 minute timeframe, YTC Price Action Trader BOF Setup off the overnight low and prior day’s low support.
A one part position (all-in-all-out).
He took a small loss, scratching nicely before the stop.
His question though…
- What did I do wrong?
(You’re going to want to click on this chart to open a larger copy in your browser. I had to shrink it to fit in the blog page!)
The question again…
- What did I do wrong?
Firstly, please remember that it’s also important to focus on what you did right. Because there is a lot here that is good.
But what was wrong?
Simply that you stopped at one trade.
You already observed that there was a second opportunity with the same trade idea that would have profited. Had you taken it you’d be one for two with a nice profit overall.
But I don’t want you to stop at two.
I want you to consider twenty trades as a minimum, before you pause and conduct a deep-level review.
If you have any problems with target selection or trade management decision making (or anything else), then these will become evident over a larger series of trades. Individual occurrences are quite possibly irrelevant.
Let me remind you of this social media post from a few years ago.
This is the path. Trading a series of trades. Not individual trades.
Trade a full series. Find where you reside on the pathway. Look to your stats and deeper-level reviews to identify areas of potential improvement. And then work to actively drive further growth and development.
Please also read this prior blog post. This was based on very similar Q&A and will explain the idea in a slightly different way. https://yourtradingcoach.org/trading-business/one-trade-does-not-provide-enough-data/
Trade one is done. Nice work. I actually do like it. Now let’s see trades two to twenty.
Happy trading,
Lance Beggs